Foals to make return to Cellar

The Foals will perform at The Cellar’s Christmas Home Town Reunion in celebration of the venue’s prevented closure.

The landlord of Cellar withdrew his application for the site to be redeveloped into a retail space in October.

The event, which is planned for the 19th December, will begin with a set from Oxford band Low Island. This will then be followed by DJ sets from Foals and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, a London-based DJ and producer.

Foals have a well-forged relationship with The Cellar. They performed some of their earliest concerts at the venue and were involved in the campaign against the club’s closure.

Low Island, who will play their debut Cellar set at the event, spoke to Cherwell about the venue’s role in discovering Oxford-based new music.

“As a new band, you need platforms that will take a risk,” they said.

“The Cellar constantly take the leap of faith with new artists based purely on their music alone – not their Facebook likes.”

“We’ve all played/djed so many times in there over the years that it really feels like our club. I’d assume this is true for many of Oxford’s musicians and must be testament to the musical family that’s so strong and committed in Oxford.”

“It’s really the ‘safe space’ for the Oxford music scene, where anything goes and music is listened to without the pre-determined stereotypes or genre baggage.”

The profits from the event will go to The Highfield Adolescent Mental Health Unit and Crisis Skylight.

Abigail Rose, a representative of Crisis Skylight Oxford, agreed that the event was “very exciting” in its potential to raise money and awareness for the issue of homelessness.